Case Study$-$ InfoServe Planning for Human Resource Needs.

Steve is the Western Canada regional manager for InfoServe. InfoServe has been contracted by a national car dealership company to provide multimedia information and support services for its vehicle maintenance and repair clients. The team at InfoServe responds to questions and inquiries about vehicle problems and troubleshooting for clients across the country via phone, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and various other social media interfaces.InfoServe's front$-$line team tends to be younger adults just out of school looking to make an income. They are often interested in cars and trucks, but not always. To this end, InfoServe has a significant training program and a large searchable database of frequently asked questions to help troubleshoot with clients. InfoServe has always prided itself on "promoting from within." In an industry marked by high turnover rates, the management at InfoServe believes that by providing opportunities for advancement, it can keep people interested in working for InfoServe longer and reduce the company's turnover rates. For every $10$ people hired by InfoServe to work on the tront line, three resign or are terminated within three months. On average.InfoServe loses another two during the first year, leaving five out of every $10$ hires at the one$-$year mark. Of these five, one is typically promoted to$"$team lead" within a year as well because of exceptional performance on the front line.Steve has found it increasingly difficult to find new staff for InfoServe. Five years ago, he used to receive about $15$ resum$$s for every job opening he posted. He has found that this number has dropped to only six resum$$s for every job posting in recent months.In addition to the reduced number of applications, Steve has also noticed something else. When a front$-$line staff member is promoted to team lead, the team often loses an additional staff member. In some cases, exit interviews have found that these resigning employees felt that they should have been given the job as team lead or could not work for someone they used to consider a friend. In some cases, however, the resigning employees comment that the recently promoted "team lead" is a terrible manager.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS$1.$ What tools could Steve use to better understand the high turnover rate at InfoServe?

$2.$ What factors might be leading to the reduced number of applications at InfoServe?

$3.$ How might technology solutions support Steve in his role at InfoServe?

$4.$ Steve has recently begun to question whether InfoServe should promote from within or hire team leads from outside the organization.What are the pros and cons of each approach? Which approach would you recommend, and why?